The largest players in the global payment industry—from Visa and Mastercard to Ripple and Stripe—have consolidated around a single standard for conducting transactions between artificial intelligences. This is the x402 protocol, which has come under the management of the Linux Foundation and already united 40 participants. This is not just another initiative, but a fundamental shift that lays the infrastructure for an economy where programs pay programs without human involvement.
What is x402 and why is it important?
The x402 protocol embeds secure payment functions directly into HTTP interactions. Essentially, it is a universal payment layer for the internet, allowing AI agents, APIs, and applications to conduct financial operations as easily as they exchange data. Originally developed within Coinbase, the protocol has now been transferred to the neutral management of the Linux Foundation, ensuring its openness and independence from a single vendor.
The premier participants of the foundation include Ripple, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Stripe, Adyen, Fiserv, Shopify, Google, Amazon Web Services, and Cloudflare. They are joined by Circle, MoonPay, as well as the ecosystem funds of Solana and Stellar. In total, since the announcement, 40 organizations have joined the initiative, including Fireblocks, Polygon Labs, NEAR Foundation, and World Liberty Financial. Such a broad coalition—from traditional payment giants to crypto-native projects—indicates a mature understanding: the future lies in machine-readable finance.
What market participants are saying
Linux Foundation CEO Jim Zemlin emphasizes that AI agents are becoming full-fledged participants in the global economy, but until now they have lacked a "native and secure" way to conduct operations. Coinbase reminds that the protocol was created to solve a specific problem: the lack of a compatible payment method for actions required by agents.
Circle focuses on speed. Company Vice President Gagan Mac notes that in conjunction with x402 and the USDC stablecoin, agents can conduct payments in seconds with fees of fractions of a cent. Ripple has already ensured support for x402 on the XRP Ledger, allowing agents to operate in XRP and RLUSD. RippleX Senior Vice President Markus Infanger confirmed that the company is actively participating in the development of the standard.
Visa, for its part, is betting on compatibility. Company Senior Vice President Rubai Bierwadker emphasizes that commerce will not work on a single agent, protocol, or payment method—the future is built on mutual compatibility. Mastercard links the initiative to its own developments, particularly the Agent Pay for Machines service, which helps scale machine payments. Stripe states it is creating economic infrastructure for AI, striving to turn the agents themselves into full-fledged participants in the economy. Cloudflare highlights the powerful industry response: 40 participants prove how overdue a "secure and native" payment layer for the internet is.
Expert comment: The launch of x402 under the auspices of the Linux Foundation is perhaps the most significant infrastructure step for cryptocurrencies and blockchain in 2024. It legitimizes the "machine-to-machine" concept at the level of global payment standards. For the crypto market, this means a direct channel for integrating stablecoins and tokens into the B2B and AI sectors, which could create a colossal influx of liquidity. However, the key challenge is ensuring the security and confidentiality of transactions in a fully autonomous mode. The technical details of implementation still leave questions, but the development vector itself is set correctly.